My Brightest Diamond

Remixes rarely step out of the shadow of their original counterparts. They used to be reserved as B-sides or stopgap albums to entice hardcore fans to the record shop at Christmas. These days, remixes are given away free as "exclusive" material on blogs in the hopes you'll check out the original. All of which makes this latest set of remixes of Sharla Worden's My Brightest Diamond project such an oddball release. Or maybe that's just the point. Split into four EPs spread over two discs, Shark features re-workings not from the hottest hip-hop DJs or bedroom knob tweakers but by a disparate quartet of modern composers and electronic sound experimenters. Alfred Brown, Son Lux, Roberto C. Lange and OM Stith each drastically manipulate tracks from Worden's 2008 LP, A Thousand Shark's Teeth. And many of the tracks, like Son Lux's take on "Inside a Boy," can proudly stand on their own. Shark does the impossible and actually bests its source material.